Know Your Audience
Tips for effectively delivering your message to your audience
I love to talk. As a kid, I was a bit more reserved, but when I became a teenager, I found my voice, and now it’s tough to keep me quiet. For my career, this helped me feel comfortable with nearly any audience.
I have been asked for advice on how to effectively speak in public. My reply is, “Know your audience!” It’s my go-to phrase for anyone planning to speak in front of others, and this is especially helpful in consulting services. Understanding who you’re communicating with is essential to ensure your message is not just received, but also understood.
After sharing this feedback, people nod and say, “Yeah, you’re right.” Then I watch their presentation and I see issues. They’re spending too much time on a topic. The presentation has become an opinionated monologue. They run out of time to cover all their planned topics. Audiences are left unsure what they are expected to take away from this.
“Know your audience.”
Three simple words, yet actually understanding their meaning is highly subjective. It’s easy to say, hard to do. What do I even mean when I’m saying these words? Has this phrase lost all meaning? Does it give people a false sense of approval to present what they have and not reexamine it? What is happening?
I want to explain what “Know Your Audience” means. I feel I have this phrase down — I’m a professional, for goodness sake. How can I not be perfect at it? Spoiler alert. I’m not. As I continue to take my own advice in putting this into practice, I want to share five tips I use in my presentations and use an example from a speech I gave a few years ago.
One note: These tips all work together. Some of these suggestions are easy for people to work on, and others require more effort. Take a look at these five tips to see where you do and do not feel comfortable. Seek out feedback! It may be scary, but it’s so valuable and easy to request and receive once you start doing it more often.
Tip 1: Determine who your audience is
The biggest tip is to think ahead to who your audience will be. Are they people who know you? Peers in your industry? People that don’t know you at all? People that don’t know your topic at all? This is important to consider early, as it will help shape the speech you deliver.
Similar to being at a party, how you talk with friends differs from the way you speak with acquaintances or strangers. Considering this when preparing a speech will influence how you want to share that story.
It’s so easy to assume that an audience has the background information you expect is needed for you to go deeper into a topic. But just like the party, some may not have the context, and you will lose their focus quickly if you don’t consider what information they know.
What if you cannot determine who the audience will be? Assume they are strangers without context. It’s easier to dive deeper into a topic if people are following along with you.
Example: My Slalom Speaks talk
Slalom has a TED-talk style event. A few years ago, I auditioned for it and was selected to speak. I was so excited! I am good at public speaking, and my topic was one of our company’s core values, Smile. After being selected, I was paired with a coach. I wrote my first draft, and the topic I initially chose was “Finding your Smile.” I realized the audience was our company in Seattle. Some would know who I was, but others would have no idea. People would know what “Smile” meant, but I could not expect them to know who I was, so I had to start from ground zero.
My first draft did not reflect this well (more on that later), but that is okay! I started by thinking about who the audience is and what their level of understanding would be. I had to introduce myself and explain how I became this person.
Tip 2: Understand your timeframe (and stick to it)
You have been selected (or volunteered) to share information with an audience. Great! Now you need to know how much of your audience’s time you have. Notice how I wrote that sentence. It’s not how much time you have (this is implied), but how much time will your audience give to you?
This will help you shape the content you will deliver. Do you have 5 minutes? 1 hour? Do you need a question and answer period? Can your topic fit into this timeframe? Attention spans are not infinite, so you need to consider how long the audience can pay attention to what you are sharing.
If you are unsure how much time you have — ask whoever is running the event. This is important to know. If it’s open-ended, define one for yourself. You have to start somewhere, and creating a timeframe to aim for will help you hone in on your overall message.
Example: My Slalom Speaks talk
I was given 8 minutes for my talk. No more, no less (with some light exceptions). My first thought was that 8 minutes would feel like an eternity. Or would it go by quickly?
Given that mine was a talk, there is no Q&A with the audience. I have to fill this whole time. This meant I had to tell more of a story, my story. My first draft took about 3 minutes to deliver. I began to panic — how would I do this. How would I memorize 8 minutes of material? I kept working with my coach to flesh out the speech, adding more chapters of my life that helped shape more of who I was and why I liked to smile. After many iterations, I finally had it down to 7 minutes and 40 seconds, with pauses for some (hopeful) laughter. I was getting there.
Tip 3: Decide what you want your audience to know
You know the type of audience and the timeframe you have. What do you want to say? You likely have a topic you want to share with them, but what do you want your audience to know? What do you want them to walk away with?
This is where people can get tripped up and complicate their narrative. It’s why thinking about who you are sharing with and how much time you are planning for can help form your method of delivery.
I recommend writing down key points you want your audience to hear when you are complete and building the story around that. For now, just write down the points and create the material you need for this. Make this a story that brings people on the journey from Point A to Point B to Point C, and so on.
If you find yourself with many points, work to prioritize which are most important. It’s likely you cannot cover everything you want to, so this becomes an iterative process of whittling down to what you want your audience to know when you’re done.
Example: My Slalom Speaks talk
This is where the iterative process really kicked in. So what did I want my audience to know? First it was that I like to smile (my first draft). My coach gave me some direct feedback that the first draft went all over the place. It did not flow. It was not a story. I panicked — can I actually do this? Maybe I’m not good at this after all.
I stepped away for a day and thought about what would help the audience understand why I like to smile. Why am I like this? And the answer came to me: it’s not just part of who I am, but my upbringing. Bringing that in can demonstrate why I am who I am. The ups and downs of my life are the root of this. It helped me frame my talk in a completely different way. When I auditioned, I had no idea I would end up telling my life story to a room of coworkers, but here I was. It felt right.
Tip 4: Review and Adjust
You have a rough draft of what you want to share, including the audience to share this with, the time you have, and the points you want your audience to hear. It’s time to review and adjust. It’s a great draft of the final product. Now it’s time to step back and look at what you have put together. Does this make sense? Does it flow well together? Can you even answer this?
Whether you are out there on your own or you have visual aids, does your presentation complement the story you’re telling? Are sections short enough? Would bullet points help drive the message? A nice graphic? Does even what you’re wearing need to reflect the narrative?
All these tips fit like a puzzle, so the checks and balances help determine where you need to make changes. If you feel the audience is smaller and knows your topic, can you go deeper into your exploration? Do you have space for a Q&A session? Start asking yourself these questions. Have a colleague or trusted friend help with your review. It’s even better if it’s someone who doesn’t know your topic at all. They can give you feedback to address any blind spots uncovered.
Example: My Slalom Speaks talk
As I mentioned, I went through many iterations of my speech. From the jumbled beginnings of an example to a segmented life journey at different key phases of my life, I had a point for each one to showcase more of my personality. This helped give the audience an understanding of why I like to smile. Why I want to bring fun to the work that I do.
My coach was a tremendous help here, and I encourage everyone to have a trusted person to share their ideas with. My partner was also a great help. He gave me a perspective outside of work that helped me adjust some of my story points. They gave me different points of view which helped make the talk approachable for a wider audience.
Tip 5: Practice, Practice, Practice
Practice. Over and over. Practice it again. Record yourself. Listen to how you sound.
I do this for every presentation I give. Depending on the length of the speech, I start practicing well in advance (days or weeks). I want to be familiar with the material, yet comfortable enough to go “off-script” if the presentation allows. I like to keep my presentations natural-sounding, but you can approach this however works best for you. If you’re uncomfortable with public speaking, write out the whole speech and practice that many times. The goal is to be as comfortable with the material as possible so that on the day of the presentation, you know what you want to share AND how you sound sharing it. Remember, you’re telling a story, and the audience is not you in your brain, already knowing what you want to share. You have to listen to what you’re sharing; practice is the best way to do this.
Example: My Slalom Speaks talk
My goodness, did I practice. Knowing I had to have this all memorized — no note cards. It helped in a few ways: memorization, timing, and knowing where to create pauses/spaces for the key points to land. I practiced at home, alone, with my timer. Over and over. I practiced in front of my coach for more feedback. I practiced in front of my partner. And then for our dress rehearsal, we practiced in front of one another.
One unexpected benefit of this practice was that I edited my speech a bit and inadvertently removed one small joke I had through my drafts. Not a huge deal, and in my many iterations up to the day, I completely forgot about that one extra nugget. During my presentation, after the first few seconds of nerves, I relaxed and started talking. That nugget just appeared in my head. I was shocked — and able to fold it right back into the speech and got a laugh. This continuous practice and subsequent familiarity helped me to relax and not worry about what was coming next in the speech. Now, I always practice, no matter how familiar the material may be.
Wrapping up
“Know your Audience” is easy to say, but hard to do. All of these tips work together. Take some time to think about who you are speaking to, what you want them to take away from your speech or presentation, how you can best deliver it, and how much time you have. This will shape the overall message in a meaningful way. Then practice, practice, practice.
Honestly, even then, the delivery can still go in directions you may not expect, and that is okay. This is, in itself, more practice, and you will use the experience to help with your next presentation in front of an audience. One that you will now know a little bit better.
